Phusion Passenger RPM packaging project

This repository contains RPM package definitions for Phusion Passenger, as well as tools for automatically building Passenger packages for multiple distributions and architectures.

The goal of this project is twofold:

1. To allow Phusion to release RPM packages for multiple distributions and architectures, immediately after a Passenger source release, in a completely automated manner.
2. To allow users to build their own RPM packages for Passenger, without having to wait for Phusion to do so.

Are you a user who wants to build your own RPMs for a Passenger version that hasn't been released yet? Read Tutorial: building your own packages.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Development
• Package building process
  • The build script
  • The test script
  • The publish script
• Maintenance
  • Updating build and/or testboxes
  • Adding support for a new distribution
  • Building Nginx packages only
  • Updating SSL certificates
  • Dealing with broken packages: enabling/disabling CR
• Jenkins integration
  • Debugging a packaging test failure
• Tutorial: building your own packages
• Related projects

Overview

This project consists of three major tools:

• build -- Given a Passenger source directory, this script builds RPM packages for it.
• test -- Given a directory with built RPM packages (as produced by the build script), this script runs tests against them.
• publish -- Given a directory with built RPM packages, this script publishes them to repos.phusionpassenger.com.

RPM package definitions are located in the specs directory:

• specs/passenger -- Package definitions for Passenger, both open source and Enterprise.
• specs/nginx -- Package definitions for Nginx, with Passenger compiled in.

Other noteworthy tools:

• jenkins -- Scripts to be run by our Jenkins continuous integration jobs, either after every commit or during release time.

This project utilizes Docker for isolation. Because of the usage of Docker, these tools can be run on any 64-bit Linux system, including non-Red Hat-based systems. Though in practice, we've only tested on CentOS 6.

Development

This repository is included as a git submodule in the Passenger git repository, under the directory packaging/rpm. Instead of cloning the passenger_rpm_automation repository directly, you should clone the Passenger git repository, and work in the packaging/rpm directory instead. This scheme allows each Passenger version to lock down to a specific version of passenger_rpm_automation.

A Vagrantfile is provided so that you can develop this project in a VM. To get started, run:

host$ vagrant up

The Passenger source directory (../..) will be automatically mounted inside the VM under /passenger.

Package building process

The package build process is as follows. First, the build script is used to build RPM packages from a Passenger source code directory. Next, either the test script is run to test the built packages, or the publish script is run to publish the built packages to repos.phusionpassenger.com.

build   ------------>   test
             \
              \----->   publish

The build script

Everything begins with the build script and a copy of the Passenger source code. Here's an example invocation:

./build -p /passenger -w work -c cache -o output -a x86_64 -A amd64 rpm:all

• -p tells it where the Passenger source code is.
• -w tells it where it's work directory is. This is a directory in which in stores temporary files while building packages. WARNING: everything inside this directory will be deleted before the build begins, so only specify a directory that doesn't contain anything important.
• -c tells it where the cache directory is. The build script caches files into this directory so that subsequent runs will be faster.
• -o tells it where to store the final built RPM packages (the output directory). WARNING: everything inside this directory will be deleted when the build finishes, so only specify a directory that doesn't contain anything important.
• -a tells it what architecture to build for. This uses RHEL architecture names, such as "x86_64" and "aarch64".
• -A tells it what Docker platform to run the build process in. This must match -a, but note that Docker uses different naming than RHEL. For example, RHEL "x86_64" is called "amd64" by Docker. RHEL "aarch64" is called "arm64" by Docker.
• The final argument, rpm:all, is the task that the build script must run. The build script provides a number of tasks, such as tasks for building packages for specific distributions or architecture only, or tasks for building source packages only. The rpm:all task builds all source and binary RPMs for all supported distributions and architectures.

More command line options are available. Run ./build -h to learn more. You can also run ./build -T to learn which tasks are available.

When the build script is finished, the output directory (-o) will contain one subdirectory per distribution that was built for, with each subdirectory containing packages for that distribution (in all architectures that were built for). For example:

output/
  |
  +-- el6/
  |      |
  |      +-- *.rpm
  |
  +-- el7/
  |      |
  |      +-- *.rpm
  |
 ...

Vagrant notes

When using Vagrant, the directories referred to by -w and -c must be native filesystem directories. That is, they may not be located inside /vagrant, because /vagrant is a remote filesystem. I typically use -w ~/work -c ~/cache when developing with Vagrant.

Troubleshooting

If anything goes wrong during a build, please take a look at the various log files in the work directory. Of interest are:

• state.log -- Overview.
• pkg.*.log -- Build logs for a specific package, distribution and architecture.

The test script

Once packages have been built, you can test them with the test script. Here is an example invocation:

./test -p /passenger -x rocky9 -d output/el9 -a x86_64 -A amd64 -c cache

• -p tells it where the Passenger source code is.
• -x tells it which environment it should use for running the tests. To learn which environments are supported, run ./test -h.
• -d tells it where to find the packages that are to be tested. This must point to a subdirectory in the output directory produced by the build script, and the packages must match the test environment as specified by -x. For example, if you specified -x centos7, and if the build script stored packages in the directory output, then you should pass -d output/el7.
• -a tells it the RHEL architecture name.
• -A tells it the Docker platform name.
• -c tells it where the cache directory is. The test script caches files into this directory so that subsequent runs will be faster.

Vagrant notes

When using Vagrant, the directory referred to by -c must be a native filesystem directory. That is, it may not be located inside /vagrant, because /vagrant is a remote filesystem. I typically use -c ~/cache when developing with Vagrant.

The publish script

Once packages have been built, you can publish them to repos.phusionpassenger.com. The publish script publishes all packages inside a build script output directory. Example invocation:

./publish -d output -u phusion -c ~/token_file -r passenger-testing publish:all

• -d tells it where the build script output directory is.
• -u tells it the repo server API username.
• -c tells it the path to the repo server API token file.
• -r tells it the name of the package repository. For example yum-repo-(oss|enterprise)(.staging).
• The last argument is the task to run. The publish:all publishes all packages inside the build script output directory.

Maintenance

Updating build and/or testboxes

If you change the buildbox or testbox, you should create a new version:

1. Update the relevant part(s) in internal/lib/docker_image_info.sh.
2. Run ./internal/scripts/regen_distro_info_script.sh.
3. Run cd docker-images/ && make all.
4. Run make upload.

Adding support for a new distribution

In these instructions, we assume that the new distribution is Red Hat 9. Update the actual parameters accordingly.

1. Bump the the buildbox version number's tiny component. Open internal/lib/docker_image_info.sh and change the number under buildbox_version.

2. Add a definition for this new distribution to internal/lib/distro_info.rb.

   1. Add to the REDHAT_ENTERPRISE_DISTRIBUTIONS constant.
   2. Add to the DISTRO_BUILD_PARAMS constant.
   3. Add the new mock configs to the docker-images/buildbox/install.sh script.

3. Run internal/scripts/regen_distro_info_script.sh.

4. Rebuild the build box so that it has the latest distribution information:

   make -C docker-images buildbox
   

5. Add <% if %> statements accordingly to output the appropriate content for the target distribution in specs/passenger/passenger.spec.erb.

6. Build and publish packages for this distribution only. You can do that by running the build script with the -d option.

   ./build -p /passenger -w work -c cache -o output -d el9 -a x86_64 -A amd64 rpm:all
   ./publish -d output -u phusion -c ~/token_file -r passenger-testing publish:all
   

7. Create a test box for this new distribution.

   1. Create docker-images/testbox-rocky-9/ (copy of testbox of previous release)

   2. Set the correct From in docker-images/testbox-rocky-9/Dockerfile

   3. Edit docker-images/Makefile and add entries for this new testbox.

      make -C docker-images testbox-rocky-9

   When done, test Passenger under the new testbox:

   ./test -p /passenger -x el9 -d output/el9 -a x86_64 -A amd64 -c cache
   

8. Commit and push all changes, then publish the new packages and the updated Docker images by running:

   git add docker-images
   git commit -a -m "Add support for Red Hat 9"
   git push
   cd docker-images
   make upload
   

9. Inside the passenger repository:

   1. Update the packaging/rpm submodule (which refers to the passenger_rpm_automation repository) to the latest commit, then commit the result. Assuming you want the submodule to update to the latest master branch commit:

      cd packaging/rpm git checkout master git pull cd ../..

   2. Edit dev/ci/tests/rpm/Jenkinsfile and add corresponding code for this new distribution and all its supported architectures.

   3. Commit and push the result:

      git commit -a -m "Add packaging support for Red Hat 9"
      git push
      

10. Inside the passenger-release repository, add this new distribution and all its supported architectures to its Jenkinsfile's RPM_DISTROS and RPM_TARGETS constants.

Building Nginx packages only

Sometimes you want to build Nginx packages only, without building the Phusion Passenger packages. You can do this by invoking the build script with the rpm:nginx:all task. For example:

./build -p /passenger -w work -c cache -o output -d el9 -a x86_64 -A amd64 rpm:nginx:all

After the build script finishes, you can publish these Nginx packages:

./publish -d output -u phusion -c ~/token_file -r passenger-testing publish:all

Updating SSL certificates

The Jenkins publishing script posts to some HTTPS servers. For security reasons, we pin the certificates, but these certificates expire after a while. You can update them by running:

./internal/scripts/pin_certificates

Dealing with broken packages: enabling/disabling CR

Once in a while, while building or while testing, YUM will abort with an error like this:

--> Running transaction check
---> Package gperftools-libs.x86_64 0:2.4-5.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libunwind.so.8()(64bit) for package: gperftools-libs-2.4-5.el7.x86_64
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: gperftools-libs-2.4-5.el7.x86_64 (epel)
           Requires: libunwind.so.8()(64bit)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

This tends to happen after a new RHEL minor release. The problem is that the Passenger packages depend on EPEL. EPEL builds against the latest RHEL release. But CentOS lags behind RHEL, so right after a new RHEL minor release there will be packages in EPEL which do not work on the latest CentOS minor release.

To fix this problem, you need to enable the CentOS Continuous Release (CR) repository in the build box and the test box. The CR repository contains prerelease packages for the next CentOS release. Note that if you enable CR, any RPMs you produce will end up depending on the package versions in CR. This means that those RPMs will work on RHEL (which has already released those versions of the dependency packages), but not on CentOS systems without CR. You must therefore instruct CentOS users to enable CR until the next CentOS minor release is published.

To enable or disable CR:

• Edit docker-images/buildbox/epel-9-x86_64.cfg. Under the [cr] section, modify the enabled flag. Then run make -C docker-images buildbox
• Edit docker-images/testbox-rocky-9/install.sh. Either comment or uncomment the lines responsible for enabling CR. Then run make -C docker-images testbox-rocky-9

When done, push these images and pull from them the CI server.

You should disable CR in the buildbox and the testbox as soon as the next CentOS minor release is published.

Jenkins integration

The jenkins directory contains scripts which are invoked from jobs in the Phusion Jenkins CI server.

Debugging a packaging test failure

If a packaging test job fails, here's what you should do.

1. Checkout the Passenger source code, go to the commit for which the test failed, then cd into the packaging/rpm directory.

   git clone https://github.com/phusion/passenger.git
   git reset --hard <COMMIT FOR WHICH THE TEST FAILED>
   cd packaging/rpm
   

2. If you're not on Linux, setup the Vagrant development environment and login to the VM:

   vagrant up
   vagrant ssh
   

3. Build packages for the distribution for which the test failed.

   ./build -w ~/work -c ~/cache -o ~/output -p /passenger -d el9 -a x86_64 -A amd64 -j 2 -R rpm:all
   

   Be sure to customize the value passed to -d based on the distribution for which the test failed.

4. Run the tests with the debugging console enabled:

   ./test -p /passenger -x rocky9 -d ~/output/el9 -a x86_64 -A amd64 -c ~/cache -D
   

   Be sure to customize the values passed to -x and -d based on the distribution for which the test failed.

If the test fails now, a shell will be opened inside the test container, in which you can do anything you want. Please note that this is a root shell, but the tests are run as the app user, so be sure to prefix test commands with setuser app. You can see in internal/test/test.sh which commands are invoked inside the container in order to run the tests.

Inside the test container, you will be dropped into the directory /tmp/passenger, which is a copy of the Passenger source directory. The original Passenger source directory is mounted under /passenger.

Tutorial: building your own packages

Are you a user who wants to build RPMs for a Passenger version that hasn't been released yet? Maybe because you want to gain access to a bug fix that isn't part of a release yet? Then this tutorial is for you.

You can follow this tutorial on any OS you want. You do not necessarily have to follow this tutorial on the OS you wish to build packages for. For example, it is possible to build packages for Red Hat 7 while following this tutorial on OS X.

Prerequisites

If you are following this tutorial on a Linux system, then you must install Docker.

If you are following this tutorial on any other OS, then you must install Vagrant and VirtualBox.

NOTE: If you are on OS X, installing boot2docker is NOT enough. You MUST use Vagrant+VirtualBox.

Step 1: Checkout out the desired source code

First, clone the Passenger git repository and its submodules:

git clone https://github.com/phusion/passenger.git
cd passenger
git submodule update --init --recursive

Checkout the branch you want. At the time of writing (2015 May 13), you will most likely be interested in the stable-6.0 branch because that's the branch that is slated to become the next release version.

git checkout stable-6.0

Then go to the directory packaging/rpm:

cd packaging/rpm

Step 2 (non-Linux): spin up Vagrant VM

If you are on a Linux system, then you can skip to step 3.

If you are not on a Linux system, then you must spin up the Vagrant VM. Type:

vagrant up

Wait until the VM has booted, then run:

vagrant ssh

You will now be dropped in an SSH session inside the VM. Any futher steps must be followed inside this SSH session.

Step 3: build packages

Use the ./build script to build RPMs. You must tell the build script which distribution and architecture it should build for. Run:

./build -p <PATH TO PASSENGER> -w ~/work -c ~/cache -o output -a <RHEL ARCHITECTURE> -A <DOCKER ARCHITECTURE> -d <DISTRIBUTION> rpm:all

Replace <PATH TO PASSENGER> with one of these:

• If you are on a Linux system, it should be ../...
• If you are on a non-Linux system (and using Vagrant), it should be /passenger.

Replace <RHEL ARCHITECTURE> with either x86_64 or aarch64. Replace <DOCKER ARCHITECTURE> with either amd64 or arm64.

Replace <DISTRIBUTION> with either el8 or el9.

• el8 is for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x and compatible.
• el9 is for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x and compatible.

Here is an example invocation for building packages for Red Hat 9, x86_64:

# If you are on a Linux system:
./build -p ../.. -w ~/work -c ~/cache -o output -a x86_64 -A amd64 -d el9 rpm:all

# If you are on a non-Linux system (and using Vagrant):
./build -p /passenger -w ~/work -c ~/cache -o output -a x86_64 -A amd64 -d el9 rpm:all

Step 4: get packages, clean up

When the build is finished, you can find the RPMs in the output directory.

If you are on a non-Linux OS (and thus using Vagrant), you should know that this output directory is accessible from your host OS too. It is a subdirectory inside <PASSENGER REPO>/packaging/rpm.

If you are not on a Linux system, then you should spin down the Vagrant VM. Run this on your host OS, inside the packaging/rpm subdirectory:

vagrant halt

Related projects

• https://github.com/phusion/passenger_binary_build_automation
• https://github.com/phusion/passenger_apt_automation
• http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/passenger.git/tree/